ANDY BYFORD, a graduate of London’s Underground, and now CEO of the TTC (Toronto Transit Commission) wants to prioritize the building of a Downtown Subway Relief Line (DRL).  From Pape to Union Station, with 5 stops along the way, it might look something like this:

Our subway system is overloaded, and ANDY BYFORD believes the time has come to stop talking and start doing.  “We’re just holding back the tide, we really do need to start thinking about relief for (the Yonge Line), to provide additional capacity to get people from the suburbs downtown,” he told CBC radio.  “The way to do that is to get people off the Bloor-Danforth line earlier, so that they don’t interchange onto the Yonge line.”And before suburbia starts kvetching about building another downtown subway at their expense, BYFORD adds: “At the end of the day, this isn’t a private shuttle for people living around Queen and King (in the core).  This is a line to get people from the suburbs, primarily, into the prime traffic objective — in other words, where people want to go — which is the commercial and financial centre of downtown Toronto.  Let’s get that debate going.  Obviously funding is an issue, but let’s at least start the talking.”